DOE Grid Study: A Missed Opportunity

This week, the Department of Energy released their much-anticipated study on grid resiliency and reliability. Unfortunately, the report follows a thesis that the reliable energy future we all want must still rely primarily on traditional, or “baseload”, forms of energy generation such as coal and nuclear. NCSEA shares the concerns of our partner organization, Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), that this report is a missed opportunity to evidence what is actually a complementary relationship between renewable energy and a reliable grid for our future.

Our friends at AEE rightly point out that, while it is good that the DOE report does not explicitly name renewables as a threat to the grid, the problem lies in how the report fails to show what they are already doing to enhance it. To echo AEE: “Distributed energy resources, energy storage, advanced grid technologies, demand response, and other advanced energy technologies are helping to make the electric power system more flexible, reliable, and resilient.” Our 21st century energy economy can’t move forward if it is still predominately powered by 19th and 20th century resources, and we hope to see more energy decision-makers embrace the opportunities before us.